Imperial Truth
, once the symbol of the Imperial Truth]] The Imperial Truth is the name given to the official set of secular, rationalist philosophical and cultural beliefs promulgated by the Emperor of Mankind himself during his Great Crusade to reunite all the worlds of Mankind beneath the umbrella of the newborn Imperium of Man in the 31st Millennium. The Imperial Truth was pioneered by the Emperor on Terra even before the Great Crusade began, the Imperial Truth is a collection of beliefs that upholds the core values of reason, science and secular progress over older traditions of religion, superstition and faith that had longed plagued many human worlds that had fallen into darkness during the Age of Strife after the fall of humanity's first interstellar civilisation. The Emperor himself declared that Mankind would never be free to progress and advance to its destined position as the pre-eminent intelligent species in the Milky Way Galaxy until "the last stone from the last church was cast down onto the last priest." He purged ancient Terra of all its ancient religions and superstitious beliefs, even going so far as to personally witness the destruction of the final church on Terra's ancient soil after engaging its resident holy man in a battle of ideas, wit and dogma. The Imperial Truth was spread to all of the rediscovered human colony worlds during the Great Crusade, taught to the men of the Imperial Army, spread by the Astartes, and spread amongst the populations of newly discovered and Compliant worlds by scores of Imperial Iterators, a corps of orators and rhetoricians of supreme skill and passion who were attached to every Expeditionary Fleet of the Great Crusade. This creed only further strengthened the Great Crusade, lending the Emperor's symbolic support to all of the scientists, sceptics and thinkers on whom the Emperor's plans for a united, galaxy-spanning human civilisation hinged. The Emperor needed a New Renaissance to begin across the nascent Imperium to see his ambitious dreams for the betterment of Mankind fulfilled. The Emperor hoped that a new age of science and technological progress would solidify and consolidate the gains he and his warriors had made in achieving a new place for Mankind in the galaxy, a restoration of humanity's righful place as the predominant intelligent species in the known universe. However, the dominance of the Imperial Truth was already under attack decades before the Horus Heresy had even begun. A text known as the Lectitio Divinitatus calling upon all of humanity to recognise the Emperor's obvious divinity as the God of Mankind had been authored by none other than the Primarch Lorgar of the Word Bearers Legion. Lorgar had been raised on Colchis, a world of priests and the religious worship of ancient Gods of what was called the Old Faith. Lorgar had overturned the Old Faith in pursuit of a new religion called the Covenant of Colchis that saw the Emperor as a God incarnate. After Lorgar had met his father he penned the Lectitio Divinitatus which taught that the Emperor was a God deserving of worship. The text spread rapidly through the fleets of the Great Crusade, and received more support amongst the civilians and support personnel than with the Imperial officers and Astartes, who believed more strongly in the Imperial Truth. Slowly, many of the people of the Imperium became convinced that the Emperor was truly a divine being and Emperor-worship cults began to spread, slowly at first but slowly gaining more momentum as the onset of the Horus Heresy approached and the influence of the Dark Gods began to wax. This process was accelerated since the Word Bearers themselves would convert every world they reclaimed to their new faith, which made their progress slow and ultimately lead to their humiliation as failures in the Great Crusade before the Emperor himself on the world of Khur. This brutal rebuke came only after the Emperor ordered the Ultramarines Legion to destroy the great Khurian city of Monarchia where he had been openly worshipped as the God of Mankind. This humiliation played a major part in Lorgar's corruption and fall to Chaos, allowing his First Captain Kor Phaeron and First Chaplain Erebus to convert him to the worship of the Chaos Gods and the subtle corruption of his Legion. Lorgar had always rejected the Imperial Truth and believed whole-heartedly that religious faith was what truly made Mankind strong and if the Emperor rejected his worship than he was determined to find the Gods of the Colchisian Old Faith and offer them his devotion. He found them near the world of Cadia close to the Eye of Terror and willingly gave his soul to them once he learned that there were truly Gods in the universe and that they welcomed the worship of Men. The Imperial Truth slowly died away as the Horus Heresy progressed and faith in the Emperor seemed to offer both spiritual succor and real psychic protection against the growing powers of the Ruinous Powers worshiped by the Traitor Legions. Once the Horus Heresy ended and the Traitor Legions fled into the Eye of Terror, the Imperial Truth's hold on the hearts of Men disappeared even more rapidly. Without the Emperor's guiding influence and constant reaffirmation of his desire for a culture based on secular rationalism, superstition and religion crept back into the hearts of Mankind. Lorgar had been right about one thing: religion did provide a far surer way to bind humanity together than reason and science. Belief in the Imperial Truth was slowly eroded away, year by year, world by world, until the Adeptus Ministorum was officially formed in the 32nd Millennium and the Imperial Cult was recognised as the state religion of the Imperium by the High Lords of Terra. The Imperial Cult combined the widespread human beliefs in the God-Emperor who protected humanity from the terrible dangers of the universe into a single, unifying religion that would sweep away the Imperial Truth as false and heretical dogma and ultimately lead the Imperium towards a decline into ignorance, superstition, intolerance and tyranny, the very things the Emperor had fought so earnestly against. Category:Imperium